Posts Tagged ‘University of Kent at Canterbury’

Chris Willmott asked me for a casino-themed shoot before I was going to leave the UK. The School of Drama building at the University of Kent had recently been finished and provided a fairly modern setting that would work, seeing as I didn’t really want to go through the whole logistics of working in an actual casino. So, thanks to the university for letting me shoot there.

The photographs ended up somewhere between the styles of James Bond and Gambit. I used Speedlights and PocketWizards to set the mood in terms of lighting, playing around with gels to get some colour contrast and get away from the boring fluorescent light.

The post-processing was a challenge for me. For two of the photographs we wanted the cards to be in mid-air. Getting it all done in-camera turned out really difficult, so I decided that I’d place the cards later on in Photoshop. Thus I ventured forth into Photoshop’s 3D world :) I hope the results look somewhat realistic.

Kent Union hired me again this year along with Mikey and Alison to photograph the annual Summer Ball. Last year I went as a guest and had an enjoyable experience, and it was fun on the staff side this year too. The acts this year included Clacket Lane, Feeder, Pendulum and Florence & the Machine (whose tour manager, it seems, fails at communication). I’ve posted a selection of my photographs below, if you want to see more of mine and the other photographers’ images head to Kent Union’s flickr stream or directly to the Summer Ball 2010 set.

This was probably the last Keynestock I could go to. When I finish my MA this summer and leave the University of Kent this great little festival organized by the Keynes Student Committee will be one of the events I’ll miss in the future. The weather didn’t play along this time, but fortunately my equipment is mostly weather sealed; a small platic bag around the body kept most of the rain off anyway.

My favourite act this year was Black Sun Down. They’ve played at Keynestock and other local venues before but this time they really delivered a great performance. All in all, I was impressed by the talent showcased yesterday. Great bands and artists all day long. I also like the way the voting worked this year, the audience could simply send a text with their favourite. Black Sun Down ended up in third place, Alex Quaye second, and History of the Trade won, which, afaik, means they can play at the Summer Ball and Artsfest (at both of which I’ll be around with the camera again).Keynestock 2010 photographs by Gilles Glod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Luxembourg License. You can download these photos for free, but you have to link back to this blogpost if you want to publish them elsewhere.

The Dutch

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The Photography and Modelling Society organized a 50s themed photoshoot in Keynes college at the University of Kent last month. I’m not sure if the clothing styles the models came up with all matched that exact time span, but let’s say it was all ‘Vintage’ to give the whole thing a coherent style.
The shoot was a bit of a challenge because there were about 20 people, both photographers and models, in a fairly small common room stuffed with tables and sofas. Without much space I made use of superclamps and magic arms to get my lights where I needed them to be.
The last image isn’t me, by the way, it’s this year’s (well, last year’s, since the elections were right after the shoot) Photography President Mikey, shooting Bert Stephani style with reflectors to shape the light from his main flash.
The editing is based on Matt Kloskowski’s ‘Ralph Lauren’ Lightroom preset which I adapted to my own needs. After that, some Photoshop to clean up the place: I mainly got rid of some stains on the floor and fix scratches in the leather.
Thanks to my models, Pulo, Laura, Solenne, Nicola, Chris and Rachel!

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A friend invited me to come to one of the American Football games, at which he played for the Kent Falcons, the University of Kent’s team. At this game they played against the University of Christchurch team. He told me it was their first season as a team, which might explain why they lost quite badly against Kent.
It was also the first time ever I’ve seen American Football. It took me all of the first half to figure out more or less how the game works. Once I was able to get a feeling for where the ball was going to go I started to get some decent pictures.

Yesterday the Photography and Modelling Society presented the Annual Fashion Show in Eliot Hall at the University of Kent. Each year, the society organizes this event, in which students from the university get on the catwalk to present clothes from local shops and designers. The sets for this show were Slaters Menswear, Kaliko Minuet, Bhs Casual, Animal, Fancy Dress, Recycling, Noa Noa, Fat Face Streetwear, Bhs Bedwear, Fat Face Summer, Punky Fish, Unique, and Armoire. The show also featured guest performances from the UKC Capeira Society and the UKC Circus Society. The proceeds from this year’s show went to Save the Children’s Haiti campaign.

Hit the jump to see the footage of each set. (Fair warning: there are over a dozen embedded videos.)(more…)

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Another year of great artists performing on ugly stages. I think those white tents kill all the atmosphere. Less photography for me this time and more hanging out; it was one of the last days in Canterbury for a couple of my friends.

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[Note: also check out photos from Keynestock 2008 and Keynestock 2007.]
Keynestock has by now become part of my yearly routine at the University of Kent and it’s become one of the defining events of the summer term for me. The Keynes Student Committee once again organized a well-rounded mini-festival with a great atmosphere. My personal favourites of the day were Andy Jeffs and Inertia. At every Keynestock a judges panel determines an overall winner who can then go on to play at Artsfest (which will be on the 13th June here at the UKC) and become the lead act for Keynestock the following year. The winners this time were Bardo Thodol, followed by Harvey Hyde & the Hecklers and Corduroy Fashion Threat. For some reactions to the judges’ decision head over and read the comments in the inQuireLive review.
Also check out the video from Keynestock 2009 on the University of Kent youtube channel:
Here’s the lineup of this year’s event. If you want to have a link to your bands website included drop me a message.
2pm – Budgie & Durex (Kent Factor 2009 winners)
2.30 – Kieran McGrath
3 – Andy Jeffs
3.30 – Firefly
4 – Bardo Thodol
4.30 – Harvey Hyde & the Hecklers
5 – Corduroy Fashion Threat
5.30 – Joel Williamson
6 – TECH BREAK – with music from Kent Tech
6.30 – History of The Trade
7 – Katy & the Thundercats
7.30 – Inertia
8 – Arundhati Riff
8.30 – Black Sun Down
9 – The Legacy
9.30 – Half A Crown (Keynestock 2008 winners)

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My computer’s decided that stitching panoramas isn’t going to happen tonight. Instead, here are some photos from this year’s edition of the University of Kent Fashion Show, organized by the Photography and Modelling Society. We had guest appearances from the Pole Fitness and Capoeira societies. All the profit that we made has been donated to the British Heart Foundation. I still have to find out from our treasurer exactly how much that was but I think it’s something around £700.
This week will also be my last as co-president of the society, on Saturday we’re holding committee elections and a new team will take over. Ooh I’m getting all sentimental about it… :)